July Extraordinary National Assembly Plenary Session Tentatively Postponed from 1st to 4th
"Judiciary Committee Allocation Issue, Major Concession Made... People Power Party Must Also Show Sincerity"
"If No Corresponding Concession, Unilateral Election of Speaker on 4th Expected" Announced
[Asia Economy Reporters Park Jun-yi and Oh Ju-yeon] The Democratic Party of Korea has decided to postpone the plenary session of the July extraordinary National Assembly from the originally scheduled July 1 to July 4. Since the Democratic Party agreed to concede the chairmanship of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee to the People Power Party, which was the main point of contention in the negotiations for the second half of the National Assembly's organization, they explained that the People Power Party should present a corresponding concession proposal over the weekend.
The Democratic Party is demanding answers regarding the submission of the list for the reorganization of the Special Committee on Judicial Reform (Saege Special Committee), which was set as a condition for conceding the Legislation and Judiciary Committee chairmanship, and the withdrawal of the constitutional court jurisdiction dispute lawsuit filed during the enactment of the "complete removal of prosecution investigation rights" (Geomsu Wanbak). They emphasized that if the People Power Party does not present a concession proposal acceptable to the Democratic Party before the plenary session on the 4th, they will proceed with the sole election of the Speaker of the National Assembly as previously announced.
On the 30th, the Democratic Party held a party meeting at the National Assembly in the afternoon and decided to temporarily postpone the plenary session scheduled for the 1st to elect the Speaker of the National Assembly unilaterally.
Park Hong-geun, the floor leader of the Democratic Party, explained at a press briefing after the meeting, "The Democratic Party originally proposed to start the extraordinary session from July immediately and had convened the plenary session for 2 p.m. tomorrow, but we have concluded to hold it at 2 p.m. on Monday, July 4, to elect the Speaker for the second half of the National Assembly."
Although the Democratic Party agreed to concede the chairmanship of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, the People Power Party has rejected both the reorganization of the Saege Special Committee and the withdrawal of the jurisdiction dispute lawsuit, causing the organization negotiations to stall for a month. The Democratic Party emphasized that they will keep the door open for further negotiations over the weekend.
Floor leader Park said, "Until then, we will continue negotiations with the People Power Party more persistently and patiently wait for them to submit a concession proposal."
He added, "Even though the Democratic Party announced its agreement to concede the chairmanship of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee to the People Power Party as per the previous floor leader agreement, the People Power Party has not presented any concession proposals since then. Given the heavy criticism over the parliamentary deadlock, we believe it is right to open the National Assembly as soon as possible to at least elect the Speaker and proceed with urgent legislation for people's livelihood, respond to security situations, and conduct essential processes such as personnel hearings. Therefore, we requested to convene the July extraordinary session accordingly."
He said, "We will wait one last time for the People Power Party's concession," adding, "There was a consensus among the members that persuasion is necessary during this period, so we decided to postpone it to the 4th."
When asked by reporters whether the demands for the reorganization of the Saege Special Committee and the withdrawal of the constitutional court jurisdiction dispute lawsuit regarding the Geomsu Wanbak bill remain unchanged, he said, "It is appropriate to wait and see if the People Power Party will come up with additional new concession proposals over the weekend. How far they will go to persuade the Democratic Party depends entirely on the People Power Party."
Regarding claims within the party to concede the chairmanship of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee unconditionally, he drew a line by saying, "That is the opinion of some members."
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